Matt Damon reveals Christopher Nolan improvised iconic Trojan Horse scene in 'The Odyssey'
Matt Damon has explained how Christopher Nolan approached the Trojan Horse sequence in 'The Odyssey' without having a fixed shooting plan. Days before filming, Damon asked the director how he intended to capture the scene, but Nolan admitted that he had not decided. The cast, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, and Nolan instead worked out the sequence after entering the wooden horse. Damon shared the story in a People interview published on July 16, one day before the film's theatrical release.
Damon said the production was filming the fall of Troy when he asked Nolan about the next part of the schedule. "I said, ‘Chris, how are you going to do the horse?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, I don’t know,’ ” Damon recalled. He explained that Nolan allowed the scene to develop organically rather than relying on a rigid plan. “The way we were going to shoot the horse was we were all going to get in the horse and figure it out,” he said. The actor described the process as highly collaborative, with Nolan and van Hoytema joining the cast inside the structure. “Hoyte [van Hoytema] is one of the best cinematographers to ever live, and he was going to get in there with us and Chris was going to get in there with us and we had this incredible group of guys [in] the cast,” Damon said. “We were together as a crew for the entire film and we just jammed in there and figured it out,” he added.
The Trojan Horse shoot also included a moment in which Jon Bernthal, who plays Menelaus, was partly submerged in freezing water. Damon said the scene was filmed during winter in Morocco, and Bernthal began shivering so heavily that speaking became difficult. “Jon was so tough,” Damon recalled. “I just have this vivid memory of being above him in the horse and Jon was shaking and putting his hands together and pressing so that he could just get the shivers out so he could get one line of dialogue out.”
Nolan checked on Bernthal during the scene, but the actor insisted on continuing. “Jon was going, ‘Just go, just go,’ ” Damon said. According to Damon, the moment occurred early in production and showed the rest of the cast what the film's physical demands entailed. Damon said the experience set expectations for the entire cast. “It was early on in the shoot, and I think that set the tone for the cast. The message was like, at some point you’re going to be the guy in the water, and you’re not going to complain about it, you’re going to push as hard as you can until Chris says, ‘That’s enough. Get out, get him warm, get him warm,’” he said. He added that despite the discomfort, it became “a cool example that he set for everybody.”
In a separate People interview, Damon discussed the travel and working conditions involved in completing the film. Filming took place across Greece, Morocco, Iceland, Scotland, and Italy, with Damon opening up about the production, “It really felt more like an expedition than a movie,” he said. “And if you were cold and wet, you just turned and you looked and Chris was just as cold and just as wet and going through it.” The tank work used two jet engines to blow water at the actors during controlled ocean sequences.
Damon said some close-ups on a raft could not be filmed safely in open water, so Nolan recreated the conditions inside the tank. “And sure enough, there were these two jet engines, like 737 engines, blowing water on us. It was definitely about as hard as you can make water work in a controlled environment,” he said. During one shot, Nolan poured water over Damon's face while he lay on the raft. Damon joked about the moment's intensity. “We were laughing at the end because we were shooting some close-up raft stuff that was too dangerous to do on the open water,” he said. “So we’d shot some wides, but we did some stuff on the tank that involved Chris pouring water over my face while I was lying there, and I was like, ‘This is perfect. We’re ending this with waterboarding,’” Damon added.
'The Odyssey' stars Damon as Odysseus, the warrior king attempting to return to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Anne Hathaway plays his wife, Penelope, while Tom Holland plays their son, Telemachus. The cast also includes Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong'o, John Leguizamo, and Bernthal. Nolan's adaptation is the first feature film to be shot entirely in IMAX and will be released in theaters on July 17. The movie follows Odysseus' journey home as Penelope and Telemachus face suitors seeking control of his vacant throne.
